Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a city in N Ukraine, 80 mi. NW of Kiev: nuclear-plant accident 1986.
noun
- a town in N Ukraine; site of a nuclear power station accident in 1986
city in Ukraine (Ukrainian Chornobyl), from Russian chernobylnik “mugwort.” Site of 1986 nuclear disaster.
A place in Ukraine where a nuclear power plant — a generator powered by a nuclear reactor — underwent a meltdown in 1986. A cloud of radioactive gases spread throughout the region of Chernobyl and to foreign countries as well. Forty thousand people living nearby were evacuated. Dozens of deaths and hundreds of illnesses were reported to have been caused by the accident. (Compare Three Mile Island (see also Three Mile Island).)